The present invention relates to fish scaling devices, and more particularly to such devices capable of batch processing quantities of fish.
As an essential step in the fish-cleaning process, the fish must be scaled. A variety of devices have been developed for batch processing fish during scaling. However, these apparatuses are not without their drawbacks.
Perhaps the most common scaling apparatus includes a generally cylindrical chamber having an abrasive interior wall rotated about a substantially horizontal axis. Fish are tumbled within the rotating chamber to be scaled by the abrasive surface. Examples of such devices are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,485,526, issued Dec. 4, 1984, to Opanasenko, entitled FISH SCALING APPARATUS; 2,355,405 issued Aug. 8, 1944, to Vucassovich, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REMOVING SCALES FROM FISH; 1,775,693, issued Sept. 16, 1930, to Price, entitled FISH SCALING MACHINE; 1,683,968, issued Sept. 11, 1928, to Gallison, entitled MACHINE FOR REMOVING SCALES FROM FISH; and 71,434, issued Nov. 26, 1867, to White, entitled IMPROVED MACHINE FOR SCALING FISH. These machines are typically commercial units and are rather large and bulky. Consequently, these devices are not readily usable by the hobbyist fisherman who wishes to simply scale a string or bucketful of fish. Second, these scalers can damage the fish, which are gravity tumbled much like the clothes with a household clothes dryer. Tumbling damage can adversely affect both the visual appearance of the fish and the quality of the fish meat.
Another batch fish-scaling machine is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,371, issued Nov. 18, 1958 to Krull, entitled FISH CLEANING DEVICE, which includes a chamber having a fixed cylindrical sidewall and a rotatable abrasive floor. The rotating floor gravity tumbles the fish and removes the scales therefrom. The Krull device is not readily adaptable for use by hobbyist fisherman. Further, this device also can damage the fish as they tumble on the abrasive floor.